Applications for 2026 Community Garden Grants open soon …
PRESS RELEASE – 14 August, 2025
The National Garden Scheme will open applications for its 2026 Community Garden Grants – generously supported by the Julia Rausing Trust – between Monday 15 September and Monday 20 October 2025, and are giving potential applicants the chance to assess their own eligibility from today.
“We welcome applications for projects that foster diversity and/or support people with physical or mental disabilities. With all applications considered on their individual merits, awards between £1,500 and £5,000 will be granted. Please note that due to the popularity of the programme the application process has changed this year with only the first 300 applications eligible for consideration,” says National Garden Scheme Chief Executive, George Plumptre.
These hugely popular grants provide funding to gardeners from community groups in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands to create or complete a garden or similar project (such as an allotment) that has a horticultural focus for the benefit of the local community or charitable group. The aim should be to bring a community together by creating or developing a space that people can share, by the acquisition and sharing of gardening knowledge and skills, and by inspiring a love of gardening.
In 2025, 114 community garden projects were funded with grants totalling £288,876 supporting community gardens and allotments, rehabilitation and regeneration projects, gardens designed to support mental health and wellbeing, as well as training and development for young people.
National Garden Scheme ambassador, TV presenter and garden designer aka The Black Gardener, Danny Clarke says: “Being lonely and isolated is one of the worst feelings in the world. Participating in an allotment or community garden can give meaningful social connections. I have noticed how these spaces can bring people of all generations, cultures and backgrounds together, to happily share knowledge and traditions. We want to see this funding going to the heart of communities, supporting projects that engage and invigorate diverse audiences, many of whom will discover for the first time the huge benefits that gardens and gardening bring to their health, wellbeing and to the surrounding environment. The icing on the cake will be that recipient gardens may also one day open for the National Garden Scheme themselves.”
The application process:
From 14 August 2025 guidelines on eligibility are available on the National Garden Scheme website here allowing interested groups four weeks before applications open to ask any questions they may have.
Submissions open on Monday 15 September and close at noon on Monday 20 October – however, due to the enormous popularity of the grants only the first 300 submissions will be accepted for assessment and applications may close early.
Successful applicants will be notified of the results in April 2026.
For more details click the link below
Good Luck!
Watch our film from National Garden Scheme Ambassador, garden designer and TV presenter, Danny Clarke on way community gardens are so important:
Lead images: Projects funded at Homerton University Hospital and Growing for Change Organic Market Garden
